Reflects on calling out industry hypocrisy and rhyming “porn” with “sirloin”
Emily Haines
Formentera this July, Exclaim! caught up with vocalist Emily Haines to rank the band’s five best songs. “A song could become a favourite based solely on how useful it is for other people, how much they enjoy it. Usefulness is a major criteria,” Haines says of her ranking system. “But on the other hand, a song could also qualify as a more personal favourite because it is an overlooked deep cut.” She notes that her picks aren’t in any particular order — although she has ranked them from five to one, so that’s how we’re presenting them.
My whole life, I’ve encountered people — usually in the music industry — who present themselves as easygoing when in fact they are mean and resentful. Meanwhile, I’ve met so many loving, generous people without a hypocritical bone in their bodies. This paradox used to really get under my skin, so it felt good to put my observations into a song. This song is so weird. Long live weird.
This song started out being called “Freddie Mercury” and was recorded at Bear Creek Studio, outside Seattle. It was supposed to be part of the album Fantasies, but we decided it didn’t fit. This was lucky, because shortly after the album came out, director Edgar Wright asked us for an unreleased song for his movie based on [Bryan Lee O’Malley’s] graphic novel about a “fictional” band, and the rest is history.
I see every one of our songs like they are our kids … sometimes I feel guilty, like as a parent I failed my song. I feel like we should have tried harder to adapt the album version to make it work live. I think it might have been recorded in the wrong key? And I wish we didn’t go back to the synth line melody recap at the end. “Fortunes” had such potential, and I feel like I let the song down. Please forgive me, “Fortunes.”
Rhyming “porn” with “sirloin” is one of the highlights of my career as a lyricist. I wrote this in 1999 about a dispiriting trip to Los Angeles when [guitarist Jimmy Shaw] and I got back from
England and were being courted by various major labels.
From the opening note of Todor Kobakov’s string arrangement performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra, this song fulfills its purpose. It is meant to sweep the listener off and out from the here and now into a place of peace. Why not just let go? Escape to Formentera.
Toronto, ON
At first blush, Blunt Chunks (a.k.a. Jaunt’s Caitlin WoelfleO’Brien) fits right in amid today’s crop of folk rock singer-songwriters. But then, four-fifths of the way into her self-titled debut EP, she blows the project wide open on “BWFW,” a breathtaking detour that erupts into alt-rock pyrotechnics. No matter what she’s channelling, she’ll make you feel exactly how she does.